Meet Our Au Pair – Childcare in Residency, Part 1

Going to an ultrasound, peering at the inside of your own uterus broadcast on a screen, and seeing a little embryonic heart beating is equal parts exciting and terrifying. Seeing two little embryonic hearts beating, while still exciting (especially after infertility), is mostly terrifying.

After we got used to the idea of two babies, two cribs, two carseats, two NICU bills, two co-pays, and two adorable little girls we started approaching the issue of two daycare spots.

How often would we be having to take off work for double-doses of the sickies?

How much would we have to change our preferred ways of raising our two mini-humans because of protocol or rules?

A lot. To all of the above questions and countless others, the answer is a lot.

We knew there had to be options other than daycare, so we googled and asked around and ended up researching several options, including Au Pairs.

What Is An Au Pair?

Think foreign exchange student blended with Mary Poppins and all wrapped up in a tortilla of cultural exchange topped with awesome sauce. That’s an Au Pair.

So, a few months into parenthood we embarked on our journey to find an Au Pair using the only agency that serviced our area, Au Pair Care. An Au Pair is (typically) a young woman from a country other than your own who takes care of your children and things related to them. In addition to childcare, most Au Pairs take some sort of college courses & focus on better learning the language and culture of your country.

For Twin Tuesday I thought I’d do a series on Au Pairs and answer some of the common questions I get about having an AP. But, for today I’ll introduce you to our wonderful Au Pair, Odelia.

Welcome To Texas, Odelia!

(the newest, and likely most normal, member of the Jones family circus)

Odelia is from South Africa. She’s 19 years old and meshes so well with our family if it wasn’t for her weird accent I would swear she was born into it (the fact that she can not only take our teasing and sarcasm, but send it flying back only proves this point).

She is absolutely wonderful with our babies. When we were interviewing her we told her we were looking for a big sister for our girls, not an employee, and that is exactly what we got.

She grew up outside of Johannesburg in a small town, so moving to small-town Texas wasn’t too much of a change.

Just kidding. Total culture shock. We may not live in downtown San Francisco, but can you imagine leaving your family and the place you’ve been raised to literally go across the world and live in new country with the circus that is this family? I mean really, three crazy dogs, two tiny babies, a mom who works 80 hours/week, and a dad who might as well be the paparazzi with the way he follows people around with cameras…that is insanity, y’all.

Throw in Texas football, weather, language, and Mexican food and we’re downright lucky she didn’t flee on day one.

We’ve been blessed with a new family member and loving childcare provider all in one. It will be a sad day when we all say goodbye and give her back to her “real” family. Until then, though, I’ll spend my time thanking her for her hard work and trying to convince her to guest post for me at Mind On Medicine. Don’t we think that’d be awesome?

In the next Twin Tuesday Au Pair post I’ll answer questions about having an Au Pair – so if you have any burning questions let me know!

Wow, so heart warming to hear these things about my own baby, Odelia!! My girl, I am so proud of you, and grateful to have you as my youngest daughter, my blessing that I recieved late in my life! Jones parents : how can I thank you enough for choosing my girl as yout AP. Love you all, Delia

So glad the Au pair is working out! We hired our first nanny this summer and so far it has been such a burden lifted for our family. What a blessing to have an extra pair of hands and an extra heart to love on the babies! Can’t wait to read more

wow- I finally got to reading your post and it is awesome!! I can see the bond she has with your babies and that in itself is amazing. Definitely considering this if I bring another bambino into the world!!

SO glad to read a first hand account of what having an Au Pair is really like! I have been kicking around the idea of having one for years now but really wanted to hear how it worked out from a PARENT first (I did meet someone who WAS an Au Pair in grad school – which was also helpful – she LOVED it!). Will look forward to hearing more about how it works out for your family!

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I’m an Ob/Gyn resident (that means I went to medical school to become a doctor) and now I'm working like a crazy person to learn my trade before I'm on my own in the wild. Once upon a time I birthed a couple of babies of my own, they're friggin' adorable twin toddlers now. My life story through November 2010 can be viewed here. The events in the many years following can be summed up as wedding bells, books, exams, babies, and doctoring. I only started this blog in hopes of landing a role in a Lifetime movie so I could quit medicine and move to Hollywood, so if you wouldn't take medical advice from Angelina Jolie, you shouldn't take it from me. I may not even be a real person. In fact, I'm probably a spambot. Or possibly a 15 yo boy blogging from a dingy basement. If you're really interested you can read more about me here. If you have any questions or want to guest post contact me.